With Riverbed Virtual Steelhead appliances, WAN optimization extends to deployments where physical hardware may not be conveniently suited. Military deployments, for example, typically use ruggedized, custom hardware on which running a virtual machine is more convenient. Space-limited scenarios, such as mobile news vans or construction trailers, may also require a form factor that is free from the physical limitations of hardware appliances.

The Virtual Steelhead appliance can be managed by industry standard virtualization tools to fit seamlessly into fully virtualized data center environments where interoperability with existing management infrastructure is a must-have. While targeted specifically for the above-mentioned scenarios, Virtual Steelhead appliances can also be deployed as a cluster in order to scale to data center environments.

Data transfer bottlenecks and unpredictability on the Wide Area Network (WAN) can hurt application performance. In addition, the time required to migrate large volumes of data to and from data centers can be a serious concern to business continuity. These limitations can also negatively impact worker productivity, constrain disaster recovery capabilities, and reduce the effectiveness of IT consolidation and virtualization strategies.

Technical Specifications

Specifications are provided by the manufacturer. Refer to the manufacturer for an explanation
of the print speed and other ratings.

Rated 4 out of 5 by Kevin Pawsey from The data reduction was fantastic, saved the company I was working for at the time a lot of time and money in upgrading circuits.Valuable Features:The data reduction was fantastic, saved the company I was working for at the time a lot of time and money in upgrading circuits.Management of the device is simple, but has all the technical aspects of a powerful appliance.Improvements to My Organization:Enabled the company I was working for then the opportunity to centralise file storage, which reduced the cost of Windows server licenses by a massive amount. It also meant that collaboration across branch offices was vastly improved, as it was possible for documents to be stored centrally and open the documents as fast as if they were local... even very large technical drawings.Room for Improvement:The version of RIOS that I used was very good, and I can't think of anything that needed major improvement at the time. We were using most of the functionality of the appliances, including Citrix optimizations, and it was all very good.Use of Solution:It was a few years ago that I was using it, but I was using it for about 5 yearsDeployment Issues:None, the performance increase was straight away, the second and subsequent time of opening any document was markedly faster than the first, once the users understood this, it wasn't a problem. Also we learnt to 'pre-warm' the box before deployment, meaning that we could get round the 'first opening delay' somewhat.Stability Issues:These boxes were always up, very stable, and even upgrades were smooth. I can't think of an instance when the appliance wasn't doing it's job as expected.Scalability Issues:None, the licenses were easy to deploy to upgrade and new appliances were just a drop in replacement. We scaled this up from an initial PoC to a fully fledged production appliance without any issues.Customer Service:We were with Teneo, and their customer service department was very good, although we dealt mainly with the sales and technical teams.Technical Support:Teneos knowledge in house was very good, both the sales force and technical support were brilliant, and when they couldn't deal with it they didn't have a problem referring it direct to Riverbed.Previous Solutions:No, we went from bare WAN connections to Steelheads, we were running out of capacity on the WAN connections, users were complaining and we needed to centralise their data, we needed to either upgrade or optimize.Initial Setup:The initial setup was very straight forward, we followed the initial advice of Teneo to start with and then went back and optimized to our own policy over time, as we found better ways of optimizing certain traffic.Implementation Team:Through a vendor initially (Teneo), and then continued deployment in house once we were familiar. Teneos knowledge was excellent and they were extremely helpful.ROI:It was very good, we ended up getting about 3x the average bandwidth increase (up to 10x at peak), and to replace with the equivalent IPClear circuits at the time would have meant increasing a majority of lines from 2Mb->5-10Mb. Back when we implemented it this would have run into the realms of about £50,000 plus running costs annually, so over the first year we easily saved that money.Cost and Licensing Advice:Don't be scared of the pricing, they seem expensive, but in reality the performance of these appliances is astounding. Even a circuit of the equivalent speed would not be as fast due to Riverbeds ability to optimize TCP windows to get 90%+ utilization of a circuit. Licensing was a little confusing when we purchased it, so take advise of what you really need before jumping in and purchasing.Other Solutions Considered:We did look at Cisco WAAS at the time, but it was very early technology, and I didn't have confidence in it. We also looked at BlueCoat, but it didn't offer the full acceleration of all the applications that we were after.Other Advice:Riverbed Steelhead is a brilliant concept, and well executed appliance. It really does do it's job very well and worth the investment.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Date published: 2016-08-18

Rated 4 out of 5 by sudeepkumar from Many of our offshore installation are on low bandwidth but this has really helped to optimize the network.Valuable Features:First of all we are great fan of Riverbed WAN optimization feature which I would say is the most valuable for us as we have couple of low bandwidth scenarios. Apart from this we are using specific Office 365 optimization since we are using Exchange online. We also use EX functionality of the box where we host our VM servers.Improvements to My Organization:Many of our offshore installation are on low bandwidth but this has really helped to optimize the network which basically means we are able to achieve faster data connection or link.Room for Improvement:There are issues with the tech support and scalability.Deployment Issues:We have had no issues with the deployment.Stability Issues:We have had no issues with the stability.Scalability Issues:The device mostly comes with a standard configuration with no options to upgrade the hardware. This means that we need to go ahead with a new or high end model in case the infra changes happen.Technical Support:Riverbed needs to really work on local support when it comes to technical knowledge transfer. They need to have teams who can give proper knowledge transfer to customers so that they can use the device in best waysOther Advice:Riverbed is great product and base functionality of these devices which is WAN optimization is handled by them in best and intelligent way.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Date published: 2016-04-10

Rated 3 out of 5 by SnrSoftwareEng549 from Through this product, we can easily find the bottlenecks and where the traffic occurs or generated in the network. Not all devices are available for creating the topology.Valuable Features:* MPLS through OSPF* VLANImprovements to My Organization:Through this product, we can easily find the bottlenecks and where the traffic occurs or generated in the network. It also helps to find the shortest path to send our data from source to destination through the MPLS network. Then, we can handle it through this technology.Room for Improvement:Not all devices are available for creating the topology as per the need on your network, such as the three switch router or firewall in this product. Nor do they provide help for putting actual and exact data for creating devices as per requirement.Deployment Issues:There have been no issues deploying it.Stability Issues:We have had some issues with licence acquisition following a hanging server or power issues. Sometimes it can take a long time to resolve the issue with Riverbed support.Scalability Issues:We have had no issuesTechnical Support:7/10Previous Solutions:We also use OPNET Modeller Academic v14.0 which is free and is easily downloaded and installed on our system. With it, there is no proper way to create the topology unlike in OPNET SP Guru Network Planner 17.0. Things missing from it are the ability to create devices and the inability to create access permissions to upload to the network configuration to my existing network. These need to be uploaded though Wireshark tools, the router or other methods.Initial Setup:It's straightforward to implement.Implementation Team:We had some issues but they were resolved with the help of the vendor team.Cost and Licensing Advice:Its licensing is for a single machine. If we want to use it on more than one machine, it doesn’t work following the install installed. This should be improved as the cost for a licence is very high and we are unable to purchase this product for using each user.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Date published: 2016-04-10

Rated 4 out of 5 by Gerard Karzon from It compresses more than 50% of the daily throughput​.Valuable Features:The WAN optimization feature is the most valuable.Improvements to My Organization:It helps to save a lot of money in terms of buying bandwidth from a network provider due to the fact that it compresses more than 50% of the daily throughput.Room for Improvement:The RIOS upgrade/download process must be overhauled to be a direct step process instead of the multiple stage procedure that currently take place.There are lots of bugs detected in each release which give the assumption that it is not being thoroughly tested.Use of Solution:I've been supporting it for seven years.Deployment Issues:We had no issues with the deployment but there are bugs in each release.Stability Issues:We have no issues with the stability.Scalability Issues:We have had no issues with scaling it for our needs.Technical Support:Technical support is very good in the WAN optimization department, needs a little more expertize in the steelcentral department.Previous Solutions:I used Cisco WAAS, Juniper WX, and Ipanema. Riverbed are way ahead overall.Initial Setup:It was straightforward.Implementation Team:I work for a network provider so we are the people who do the implementation. I find that the implementation is very easy in this solution.Other Advice:This product is far way ahead from its competitors.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:We are the biggest reseller of Riverbed product

Date published: 2016-03-28

Rated 4 out of 5 by Marc Ferguson from ​By utilizing the RSP slots we can create a virtual domain controller and/or member server at our remote sites.Valuable Features:* Inbound QoS* Outbound QoS* Path Selection* SSL optimization* The breadth of scope in the “Reports” tab….(Top Talkers, Current Connections, Application Visibility, Optimized throughput, Traffic Summary and many more)Improvements to My Organization:By utilizing the RSP slots we can create a virtual domain controller and/or member server at our remote sites to take care of DHCP, DNS, LDAP auth, Server Print Queues, etc.If no local file shares (Storage) are needed this is a nice way to save money on hardware and maintenance costs.Room for Improvement:SteelCentral Controller global QoS policy should be able to be implemented from the CLI vice only the Web GUI.Deployment Issues:We've had no issues with deployment.Stability Issues:We've had no issues with stability.Scalability Issues:We've had no issues with scalability.Other Advice:It is very good at optimizing WAN traffic and it has so many more features on top of that which help global enterprises monitor, identify and police traffic by application type, IP subnet, source, and/or destination. Amazingly efficient tool to use when troubleshooting WAN issues..(customer complaints and more).Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Date published: 2016-03-22

Rated 4 out of 5 by networka403923 from Easily, we were able to determine source/destination and how much data they have used.Valuable Features:Aside from optimizing WAN connections between our remote offices and the home office, the charts/real-time graphs proved to be valuable during troubleshooting over-utilization issues. Easily, we were able to determine source/destination and how much data they have used.Improvements to My Organization:We've increased throughput between remote offices, increasing our efficiency.It provides easy-to-read data to review troubles within the network which allowed us to resolve the issue much quicker.Room for Improvement:Personally, my expertise with this device I feel is too low to determine what areas could be improved. I did use this device for 3+ years while with another job and administered the web interface and even jumped into the CLI with support at times. However, I have no professional training.Use of Solution:3+ yearsDeployment Issues:No issues with deployment of this hardware. Although I believe it may not be recommended the device is essentially plug-n-play, meaning the database will determine what networks to optimize without you having to specify every subnet.Stability Issues:At times, like all network devices there were issues, but support was there to help us understand/resolve any issues that we could not handle. Even if it meant RMA, we would receive a new Steelhead the next day and be able to replace it.Scalability Issues:I did not deal much with scaling as the network didn't grow while I was there, but we did have the Riverbed CMC (I believe is the acronym - central management console?) Having this would have made scaling easy, I assume.Customer Service:Customer service was what I would expect out of every company. They took care of us when we needed them to, including replacing the device with minimal questions.Technical Support:Tech support was great as well, they were able to remote into my computer and then use the putty session from there to gather information needed or resolve the issue.Previous Solutions:I am not aware of the company using any other solution. When I joined they were already using Riverbed Steelhead.Initial Setup:I was not there for the initial setup, but I did replace one remote office steelhead and that was easy to doImplementation Team:I implemented through a in-house one, no rating to give to a vendor team. We handled everything if it was over our heads we had their tech support.ROI:I would not know this information as I was only dealing with the administration of the device. These devices were extremely valuable as when one went down or optimization turned off, everyone noticed.Cost and Licensing Advice:I would not have valuable / correct information on pricing or licensing as I did not handle that portion. I'm sure like anything, if you want all the bells and whistles expect to pay some $$.Other Solutions Considered:No other options were evaluated, to my knowledge. I am not even aware of other WAN optimizers. I'm sure there are some, when the time comes I'm sure I'll do some research.Other Advice:No additional comments or advice regarding Riverbed Steelhead. The devices were great, and proved to be a very valuable asset to the company.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Date published: 2016-03-11

Rated 4 out of 5 by Tommy Nguyen from Customer Service and Tech Support get a 5 out of 5. It should handle more traffic simultaneously.Valuable Features:The data compression through the WAN. It is like being on a LAN. It is even more effective when the technology uses an adaptive transfer scheme known as "warm transfer".Improvements to My Organization:Critical data such as emails and Sharepoint files being able to move faster across the WAN via Riverbed Steelhead's compress/decompress mechanism.Room for Improvement:Need to handle more traffic simultaneously.Use of Solution:2 yearsDeployment Issues:No, everything is plug and play with minor configuration involved.Stability Issues:Not at allScalability Issues:Not at allCustomer Service:5 out of 5Technical Support:5 out of 5Previous Solutions:I used Cisco WAAS technology before. The Riverbed Steelhead is much easier to configure and works faster on packet delivery.Initial Setup:Setup was very straightforward.ROI:Less bandwidth usageOther Advice:Please do some diligent research before purchasing the product. It is quite expensive but it is worth it in the long run.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.